Tobacco tax greatly impacts OSU Medicine
Oklahomans went to the polls last month in support of State Question 713, an increase in the state’s tobacco tax. According to President John Fernandes, "passage of this tax is perhaps the most significant event in the 30-plus year history of OSU Medicine."

Of the estimated $150 million dollars of additional annual revenue, approximately $7 million per year is earmarked for the College of Osteopathic Medicine. Fernandes is confident there are federal dollars to match this surplus, dramatically improving Tulsa’s healthcare landscape.

How the tobacco tax will be usedOSU Medicine - $7 million dollars per year

$3.5 million debt service for a multi-purpose clinic and telemedicine facility

$500,000 for telemedicine network and technology

$3.0 million for Tulsa-area indigent care

OSU officials believe it will take six to eight months before the campus feels any impact from the tobacco tax. They expect to increase clinic capacity by 30,000 patients next year. Actual construction of a new facility could begin in late 2005.

OSU embraces alumni at AOA conventionOSU faculty and staff invaded San Francisco last month for the annual AOA Convention. In addition to hosting an orange power booth, OSU sponsored an alumni luncheon and reception for graduates and their spouses. Murray Crow, president-elect, gave the keynote address and informed alumni about past and future activities including a new partnership with the OSU Alumni Association in Stillwater.

If you didn’t stop by the OSU booth to pick up your goodies, be sure to visit us March 16-18 in Phoenix at the ACOFP meeting!

OSU-COM Alumni Association joins OSU Alumni AssociationA letter of intent has been sent to the leadership of the Oklahoma State University Alumni Association accepting their invitation to become a member of the constituent society of alumni of the University. This means that our membership will have the opportunity to participate in OSU alumni affairs with a seat at the table. It also broadens the base of membership as well as the range of services provided to our members. Having broader representation and potentially more membership means a stronger voice from our alumni, and could make the organization more responsive to the needs of its members.

There will continue to be an independent local alumni association with its own executive board elected by us, the OSU-COM alumni. We will share membership dues with the OSU Association, but the OSU-COM chapter will continue to have its own fund raiser (Spring Fling) and will continue to keep and be responsible for all investments and money that it raises. The local chapter also still has the goal of supporting the OSU-COM alumni and the College as its priority.

This will be a change for several of our members who started out as I did in an independent State school, OKCOMS. Several of us came from other undergraduate programs such as OU or NSU. You can still be loyal to those undergraduate institutions, but in 1988 we became a College of Oklahoma State University, and there are now more graduates, and therefore alumni, from the OSU medical school than there are from OKCOMS. Those of us who started with OKCOMS can still be proud of our past and the contributions we made in bringing our school to where it is today, but now we need to let ourselves move on to a new phase in the development of our college.

For all of the seven years I was privileged to be a faculty member at our school, the one thing I heard most consistently was the lament that we were not taken seriously by Stillwater, and many of the faculty there were not even aware that OSU had a medical school. They know about us now, and will continue to know about us as one of the premier Colleges of the University. We, as alumni, are part of that heritage and must continue to be part of the future of the University.

Miller, Motte serve alumniRyan N. Miller has been named assistant director of alumni affairs. He is a 2000 graduate of OSU with a B.S. in Business Administration, with a major in marketing and emphasis in advertising and promotion.

Renee’ Motte now serves as alumni affairs administrative assistant.

New OMM department renews tradition JoAnn Ryan, D.O., ’83, chair of the newly-created osteopathic manipulative medicine department (OMM), wants to put a special tool into the hands of every future osteopathic medicine physician: their own two hands. The new OMM department will train osteopathic physicians to integrate osteopathic philosophy and manipulative medicine into primary care and specialties. New rotations have been created for third and fourth year students. "An OMM residency will allow doctors with a special interest in OMM to be eligible for board certification," Ryan says.

A new Center for Structural Medicine is open at the OSU Health Care Center to treat patients. Department members include:

Ken Graham, D.O., ’79

Larry Ellis, D.O., ’99

JoAnn Ryan, D.O., ’83

Other faculty members include:

Harriet Shaw, D.O.

Robin Dyer, D.O., ’99

Miriam Mills, M.D.

New officers: a closer lookOSU College of Osteopathic Medicine Alumni Association executive committee officers for 2004-2005 recently assumed their new duties, bringing with them a broad spectrum of experience and knowledge. Here’s a closer look:

Charles E. Henley, Jr., D.O., M.P.H., ‘77President

Henley, a member of the first graduating class at the College, is professor and vice-chair of the Department of Family Medicine and Founders and Associates research chair in family medicine, at the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine in Tulsa. He is board certified in family practice by AAFP and AOFP. Henley was professor and chair of the Department of Family Medicine at OSU from 1997 until June 2004. At OSU, he was active in the development of the Division of Rural Health, and in faculty development programs in family medicine. He also served as Chief of Clinical Policy/Consultants Division and Chief Consultant to the Army Surgeon General US Army Medical Command, Office of the Surgeon General, San Antonio from 1994-97. He received the Legion of Merit by the Army Surgeon General in 1997, and also has been awarded the Army Commendation Medal, Meritorious Service Medal with two Oak Leaf Clusters, the National Defense Medal and the overseas ribbon. He served on active duty in
the Army Medical Corps from 1977-97, retiring at the rank of Colonel. Henley is a member of the American Osteopathic Association, the Oklahoma Osteopathic Association, the American College of Osteopathic Physicians, Fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians, Oklahoma Academy of Family Physicians and a Fellow in the Coastal Research Group.

Murray D. Crow, D.O., ‘92President Elect

Crow is a family practice physician in Sand Springs, Okla., and at Associates in Medical and Mental Health in Tulsa. He is an assistant clinical professor of family medicine at the College and is a staff member at Tulsa Regional Medical Center and St. John Medical Center. Crow is a Diplomat, National Board of Osteopathic Medical Examiners and certified by the American College of Osteopathic Family Physicians. He served as chair of the Department of Family Practice at Tulsa Regional Medical Center from 1999-2001. Crow is a member of the Tulsa Osteopathic Medical Society, Osteopathic Founders Foundation, American College of Osteopathic Family Physicians, Oklahoma College of Osteopathic Family Physicians, Oklahoma Osteopathic Association and American Osteopathic Association.

Joseph M. Coffman, D.O., ‘95Vice President

Coffman is a board certified osteopathic family physician practicing at Warren Clinic in Tulsa. He completed a general rotating internship and a family medicine residency at Grandview Medical Center at Ohio University. In 1999, he was named Oklahoma Osteopathic Association’s Rookie Physician of the Year. At OSU, he earned the Dean’s Award for Academic Excellence three semesters. At Warren Clinic he is a member of the medical quality committee. Coffman is a member of the Oklahoma Osteopathic Association, the American Osteopathic Association, the American Medical Association and Tulsa Medical Society, as well as the American Academy of Family Physicians. His wife is Darci Coffman, D.O., ’95. The couple has two children, Sam and Tess.

Richard A. Hastings, II, D.O., Ph.D., ‘80Secretary/Treasurer

Hastings is board certified in Internal Medicine by the American College of Osteopathic Internists and practices at Harvard Medical Clinic in Tulsa. He is the recipient of several teaching awards at the college, where he was a professor and lecturer until 1996. He also has taught at Baylor College of Medicine and the University of Alaska Medical School. In 1998, he completed course work for certification by the American College of Osteopathic Occupational Medicine. He holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Cornell College and a Ph.D. in anatomy from Washington University. Hastings enjoys mountaineering, cross-country skiing, photography, sports, wood working and art collecting. Hastings is married to Carolyn J. Steele, D.O., ’80.

Alumni NotesJames S. DiStefano, D.O.,’92, is completing a sports medicine fellowship for 2004-2005 at OSU-Stillwater. He and wife, Jennifer, are adopting their new son and fourth child, Joseph, from Guatemala.

Phil Nokes, D.O. ‘78, is serving in Iraq as a field surgeon. He is a Colonel in Oklahoma’s 45th Field Artillery Brigade. Nokes, who volunteered to serve, said before his departure that his work would include general practice, trauma care and some work with Iraq’s indigent populations. He expects to return to Oklahoma in April, and is looking forward to attending his daughter’s graduation from the University of Central Oklahoma and her pinning as a registered nurse, in May. His son, Tim, is a second year medical student at OSU.

MilestonesDavid Winner, D.O., ’00, passed away July 28 after a long illness. Services were held at Ashland Church of Christ in Ashland, Illinois.

Laura Perry, the wife of Ron Perry, D.O., ’97, died September 8 after a long battle with cancer.